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Lecture 2 :
2
Time Item
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Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu 8:00 pm – 10:30 pm
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Clear skies required!
Cronyn status :
http://www.astro.uwo.ca/cronyn status.html
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Clickers: Last week not enough data to process.
L t’ t
Let’s try again today.
i t d
WebCT quiz: just do it.
Diagnostic test: results next week.
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Earth has the closest encounter with Jupiter until
2022 That makes it VERY bright and nice and
2022. That makes it VERY bright, and nice and
big in the Cronyn telescope!
Methane in atmosphere of Mars lasts less than a
year
year.
…. And now, by request, some self‐promotion.
f
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What’s your favorite color?
Text entry answer!
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Today, we’ll simply have a look at the “Big
Picture” of the Universe:
ctu e o t e U e se
What is the Solar System, the Milky Way, the Local
Group, galaxy cluster??
How big are things, how far apart? How and where
does Earth fit in?
What sort of timescales are appropriate?
We won’t really explain how we know all that –
we’ll save that for the remaining lectures.
g
We’re setting the stage for the rest of this
course….
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After today s lecture, you will be able to estimate
After today’s lecture you will be able to estimate
and visualize sizes and distances in the Earth‐
y y y
Moon‐Sun system and beyond by using scale g
models.
You will be able to express astronomical
p
distances using light travel times.
You will know how different structural elements
of the Universe are related to one another.
You will be able to compare events in the history
of the Universe to a one‐year calendar.
f th U i t l d
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Q: Do I have to know precise distances between
Moon and Earth Sun & Earth planets etcetera ?
Moon and Earth, Sun & Earth, planets etcetera ?
A: No, you don’t have to memorize precise
A N d ’t h t i i
numbers. However, you should know a “ballpark”
figure for certain distances and sizes and you
figure for certain distances and sizes, and you
should now how these numbers relate to each
other
other.
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We’ll start from Earth, and then gradually work
our way outward to larger objects and larger
collections of objects….
As we go along we will use various scale models
As we go along, we will use various scale models
to get a good sense of relative sizes and
distances
distances.
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A scale model is a representation or copy of an
object that is larger or smaller than the actual
size of the object.
In Astronomy: always smaller and by a large
In Astronomy: always smaller, and by a large
factor!!
All sizes and distances scale by the same factor!
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Since many numbers are so big we can’t really
imagine them it often helps to make scale
imagine them, it often helps to make scale
models.
Scale models : all sizes and distances are reduced
by the same factor.
E g two asteroids of 500 and 1000 km that are
E.g. two asteroids of 500 and 1000 km that are
40,000 km apart become :
T o objects of and 0 cm that are m apart
Two objects of 5 and 10 cm that are 4 m apart.
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You don’t need
to know sizes
k i
to see that
they are
y
similar!
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Diameter:
12,742 km.
You should
know:
approximately
12,000 km.
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When in orbit, how far away is the Space Shuttle from
Earth?
A. A few kilometers.
B. A few hundred kilometers.
C. A few thousand kilometers.
D. Close to a million kilometers.
E. Close to a billion kilometers.
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Earth as seen from the Space Shuttle / ISS
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When in orbit, how far away is the Space Shuttle from
Earth?
A. A few kilometers.
B. A few hundred kilometers.
C. A few thousand kilometers.
D. Close to a million kilometers.
E. Close to a billion kilometers.
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The ISS and the
shuttle as seen from
the ground with a
moderate telescope
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Equatorial diameter : 12,756 km
E
Equatorial circumference : 40,075 km
t i l i f k
“Around the world” is about a 400 hour drive
( bit l th d
(a bit less than 17 days non‐stop).
t )
Convenient scale model for now:
scale down by a factor of 50 million
l d b f f illi
‐> diameter about 24 cm
abo t the si e of a basketball
about the size of a basketball.
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With Earth the size of a basketball, where should we put
the International Space Station ?
A. 1 cm above the surface
B. 10 cm above the surface
C. 1 m above the surface
D. 10 m above the surface
E. 100 m above the surface
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Space Shuttle / ISS typically flies at about 400 km
Di id d b illi 8 !
Divided by 50 million = 0.8 cm !
The Hubble Space Telescope at about 1.2 cm
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Communication satellites are typically in
geostationary orbits : they rotate around the
earth in exactly one day.
These appear motionless in the sky
Physics requires them to be at an altitude of
35 786 km
35,786 km
In our scale model that would be: 71.6 cm
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How big would the moon be?
H ld fi
How could we figure out?
t?
Is the Moon bigger or smaller than the Sun?
Closer or further away than the Sun?
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The shadow of the Moon on Earth during a solar eclipse
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With Earth the size of a basketball, how big should the
Moon be ?
A. About the size of a small ball bearing
B. About the size of a marble
C. About the size of a baseball
D. About the size of a grapefruit
E. About the size of the Earth itself
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Equatorial diameter = 3,476 km
S i l d l thi b
So in our scale model this becomes about 7 cm.
b t
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Where do we put the moon in our scale model :
A. At a distance of less than 70 cm
B. At a distance of about 1 m
C. At a distance of about 7 m
D. At a distance of a more than 10 m
One correct answer
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The distance to the moon is 384,399 km
S l d 6
Scaled = 769 cm or 7.7 m
How do we know the distance ??
‐> Since Apollo : Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR)
Si A ll L L R i (LLR)
This figure has the correct scale !!
30
Point laser to mirror on the moon
L
Laserlight
li ht is reflected
i fl t d
Detect laser pulse and measure time between
fi i l
firing laser and detecting the signal
d d t ti th i l
This is then the light travel time
If we know the speed of light, we can calculate
the distance
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c = 299,792.458 km / s
You should know: about 300,000 km/s
This is the absolute fastest speed possible in the
Universe !
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LLR experiments observe arrival of pulse about 2.6
seconds after firing the laser.
g
With a speed of about 300,000 km/s, this corresponds
to a distance of 780,000 km
But this is twice the distance to the moon (light has to
go the moon, and then get back)
S t di t
So true distance is half of that, or about 390,000 km
i h lf f th t b t k
Or : the distance to the moon is about 1.3 light‐
seconds !
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LLR extremely precise
M
Moon is drifting away at about 3.8 cm per year
i d ifti t b t 8
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The physical size of the Sun is about 400 times
larger than the physical size of the Moon.
larger than the physical size of the Moon
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How big should the sun be in our scale model ?
A. Diameter of about 30 m
B. Diameter about 100 m
C. Diameter about 500 m
D. Diameter about 1 km
One correct answer
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Diameter about 1,400,000 km
S l d 8 8
Scaled = 2800 cm = 28 m
Sun’s diameter is larger than the Moon’s orbit !
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Total solar
eclipse: the
apparent size
of the Sun and
the moon are
the same!
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The Sun must be about 400 times further away than the
Moon
True/False
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How far away is this big ball ?
A. About 100 m
B. About 500 m
About 500 m – other side of the campus
C. About 3 km – near Victoria Park, London ON
D. About 20 km
One correct answer
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Distance to the sun is approximately 150 million
kilometers.
kilometers
This is referred to as an Astronomical Unit (AU)
AU
AU most commonly used as the basis for
t l d th b i f
distance scales in the solar system
Di id d b illi k i l d l!
Divided by 50 million = 3 km in our scale model!
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If light travels a bit more than 1 second from the Moon to Earth,
then how long does sunlight need to travel to reach Earth?
A. 1 second.
B. A bit more than 400 seconds.
C. A bit more than an hour.
D. Many hours.
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Using the right numbers, you can find that it
takes sunlight about 8 minutes to reach the
Earth.
So if the Sun would stop shining right now, we
wouldn t know about it for another 8 minutes!
wouldn’t know about it for another 8 minutes!
Earth‐Sun distance: 8 light minutes.
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Space is not as far away as you think – when
overhead space shuttle is closer by than distance
overhead, space shuttle is closer by than distance
to Ottawa or Chicago !
Moon’s diameter is about ¼ of Earth’s diameter
Moon s diameter is about ¼ of Earth s diameter
Moon is not as close to the Earth as you think !
Si f h S i l
Size of the Sun is larger than Moon’s orbit around
h M ’ bi d
the Earth !
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Q: What is the Solar System?
A Th S l S t i th ll ti f bj t th t
A: The Solar System is the collection of objects that
orbits the Sun – including planets, comets,
asteroids
asteroids, …
Let’s focus on planets.
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Distances not to scale !!
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Our scale model that worked well for the Earth‐
Moon system does not work that well anymore
for larger distances…..
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Instead of scaling by a factor 50 million, let’s try 10
billion
billion.
Sun is now about 14 cm – grapefruit sized.
1 AU = 150 million km corresponds to about 15
AU illi k d t b t
meters.
Di
Distance to Pluto : half a kilometer
Pl h lf kil
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Earth ,74
12,742 25 cm
5 1 mm
With the Sun the size of a grapefruit, how far away is the
nearest star – Proxima Centauri ?
A. About 3 km away – Victoria Park, London ON
B. About 200 km away
About 200 km away – Toronto, ON
C. About 1,000 km away – Quebec City
D. About 4,000 km away – Vancouver
E. About 15,000 km away – Sydney, Australia
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Instead of scaling by a factor 50 million, let’s try
10 billion.
Sun is now about 14 cm – grapefruit sized.
1 AU = 150 million km corresponds to about 15
1 AU 150 million km corresponds to about 15
meters.
Distance to Pluto : half a kilometer
Distance to Proxima Centauri : 4,400 km !
Typical distance between stars in the Milky Way
yp ca d sta ce bet ee sta s t e y ay
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State‐of‐the‐art spacecraft : speed a bit over
50 000 km/h
50,000 km/h.
To reach the nearest stars, would still need about
100 000 years
100,000 years……
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If light takes more than 4 years to travel from
Proxima Centauri to here, it also means we see
Centauri to here it also means we see
Proxima Centauri as it was more than 4 years
ago….
ago
We cannot now what the present day situation is
for those distances
So : looking farther = looking further back in time
Astronom as a time machine !
Astronomy as a time‐machine !
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Say…..that’s a lot stars you’ve got there….
Th i t !
The sun is a star!
It’s just one of about 300 billion stars in our Milky
W G l
Way Galaxy
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Sun is about 28,000 lightyears from the center of
the Milky Way
the Milky Way.
Diameter of MW : about 100,000 lightyears
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Our Milky Way is “fairly close” to other galaxies –
forming the so‐called Local Group
forming the so‐called “Local Group”
About 30 Galaxies, including Magellanic Clouds,
Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy Andromeda Galaxy
Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy
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160,000 lightyears
Large Magellanic Cloud
SN 1987A
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200,000 lightyears
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2,500,000 lightyears
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200 million lightyears
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Our Milky Way is one of at least 100 billion
galaxies in the observable Universe.
galaxies in the observable Universe
So roughly 1022 stars in the observable Universe…
…about as much as there are grains of sand on all
b t h th i f d ll
beaches on Earth….
…and that’s only for that part of the Universe we
d h ’ l f h f h U i
can actually see…
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The Hubble Deep Field: Empty Space
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Solar System: Sun & What goes around
SS i t f Milk W G l
SS is part of Milky Way Galaxy: fairly flat
f i l fl t
collection of billions of stars.
MW l t f L l G
MW galaxy part of Local Group: few tens of
f t f
galaxies, reasonable close together
L l G
Local Group part of Local Supercluster
f L l S l
Which is part of the Universe.
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Compared to sizes of objects, distances between
them are huge!
So the Universe is “mostly empty”!
B t th U i
But the Universe is also a really big place….
i l ll bi l
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Earth rotates around its axis (1 day)
O bit th
Orbit earth around the sun (1 year)
d th ( )
Orbit sun in Milky Way
Galaxies : expanding universe
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Rotation takes 24 hour
The circumference at the equator is about 40 000
The circumference at the equator is about 40,000
km
So by rotating, we “travel” about 40,000 km per
So by rotating, we travel about 40,000 km per
24 hours….
…which means we travel at about 1,670 km/h !
, 7 /
Lower speeds at higher latitudes
Rotational velocity = 0 at poles.
otat o a e oc ty 0 at po es
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With a radius of 150 million km, the length of one
orbit (circumference or circle) is about 1 billion
km.
By going around the Sun we travel about 1
By going around the Sun, we travel about 1
billion km per year….
…which means our speed is about 114,000 km/h!
which means our speed is about 114 000 km/h!
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With respect to “local neighbourhood” – i.e. the
nearest stars :
Speeds typically 70,000 km/h
Because of huge distances constellations change
Because of huge distances, constellations change
only slightly on timescales of 10,000 years.
Galactic rotation typically 800 000 km/h
Galactic rotation : typically 800,000 km/h
Even with that speed, solar system has only
completed 20 30 orbits
completed 20‐30 orbits….
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Within local Group : random velocities.
E g MW moving toward Andromeda at speeds
E.g. MW moving toward Andromeda at speeds
well over 300,000 km/h
Other galaxies / clusters : expansion of the
Universe
Furthest galaxies moving away at nearly the
Furthest galaxies : moving away at nearly the
speed of light….
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Hubble’s Law: the further away a galaxy is, the
faster it is moving away from us….
faster it is moving away from us
So are we in the center of it all ??
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Note how for all raisins, all other
raisins are moving away…. The further
away they are, the faster they are
moving away!
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We are never sitting still!
S
Speeds are enormous; typically the larger scales
d t i ll th l l
correspond to faster speeds!
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Because of the expansion of the Universe, we can
only see objects within a certain distance :
Light from objects that are farther away has not
had time yet to reach us during the lifetime of
the Universe :
The Universe has an observation limit :
a horizon
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Space itself is expanding…
S thi
So things were closer in the past –
l i th t there is a
th i
unique moment in time where the entire
Universe was located at one single point.
Universe was located at one single point
‐> Big Bang, about 14 billion years ago…
…so how long ago is that ??
h l i h ??
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Idea: compress time so that the entire lifetime of
the Universe is represented by exactly 1 year.
the Universe is represented by exactly 1 year
January 1st : Big Bang
D b st, 11:59:59pm: right now.
December 31 i ht
‐> So one day corresponds to about 40 million
years….
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On this cosmic calendar, when did the dinosaurs become
extinct ?
A. April 1st
B. September 22nd
C. November 11th
D. December 30th
One correct answer
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About 65 million years ago, so scaled down that
is less than two days before december 31st,
midnight.
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Somewhere in February : Milky Way forms
S t b rd : Earth forms (about 4.5 billion
September 3 E th f ( b t billi
years old)
S t b nd : Early life on earth.
September 22 E l lif th WOW!
That’s quick!
D b stt, 11:58pm : Modern humans evolve
December 31 8 M d h l
Entire history of human civilization : the last
thirty seconds….
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The MW galaxy formed “shortly” after the Big
Bang…
Bang
But it took a while before the Solar System
(including Earth) formed!
Life on Earth arose shortly after the formation of
the Solar System…
the Solar System
But it took a long time before humans appeared
on the planet!
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The Universe is a big, big place
Di t
Distances are often gigantic compared to sizes :
ft i ti d t i
the Universe seems mostly “empty”, or at least
“spacious”
spacious
Hierarchy : planets < stars < galaxies < clusters <
superclusters < Universe
The Universe is expanding
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How big is an Astronomical Unit, Light‐year,
light‐second
light‐second, ….
What are typical sizes and distances in the
Universe and how do they compare?
Age of the Universe : about 14 billion years
H
Humans haven’t been around that long
h ’ b d h l
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Read Chapter 2 (see lecture guide in course
outline)
outline).